An infidel farmer in Illinois, wrote to the editor of a newspaper as follows:
"I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday; I planted it also on Sunday; I did all the cultivating it received on Sunday; I gathered the crop on Sunday, and on Sunday hauled it to the barn, and I find that I have more corn to the acre than has been gathered by my neighbors during this October."
The editor of the newspaper was not a professor of religion, and the farmer evidently counted on obtaining his sympathy. He did not get it, however, for he simply added these words at the bottom:
"God does not always settle His accounts in October."
The farmer seemed to imagine that because his crops prospered, and that he was not punished for breaking the Lord's Day, that therefore there was no God, or if there were one, He was indifferent as to man's conduct. A terrible mistake, surely!
Men judge of God by themselves. God is "long suffering and slow to anger," but He "will by no means clear the guilty" (Exod. 34:7). God chooses His own time to settle the account with the sinner, but "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).
In speaking to His people, Israel, He tells what great sins they have been guilty of, and adds:
"These things hast thou done and I kept silence, thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver" Psa. 50:21, 22.
They thought that God was like themselves because He "kept silence." His long-suffering was manifested that they might repent and be forgiven, but they mistook His silence for indifference.
"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Eccles. 8:11.
Because God does not "speedily" execute judgment on sinners, because He is loving and patient, men take advantage of it, and instead of accepting the offer of mercy which He is pressing on their acceptance, their hearts are "fully set in them to do evil." Are you one of this class?
"The wages of sin is death," and the "wages" will assuredly be paid to those who do not accept God's gift of "eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
There is a day of reckoning ahead, whether you believe it or not.
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9:27.
"What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee?" Jer. 13:21.
God is waiting to be gracious, and longs to pluck you from the eternal burning (2 Peter 3:9; Ezek. 33:11). He has given the Lord Jesus to die on Calvary's Cross to save you from unending woe. Sin has been so "put away" that God can, in consistency with His inflexible righteousness, and holiness, pardon the biggest offender. Hearken to His gracious invitation:
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 1:18.
Why not now believe on Christ and be eternally saved? (John 5:24; 6:47) Behold, now is the accepted time (2 Cor. 6:2).